I'm sure you all or some of you own those offbrand drawing tablets that are cheaper alternatives to the apparently "oh so mighty" wacom. If you've used a wacom software before to draw (or not) how do you believe they compare? Nibs better or worse? What about surface?
My core has wacom tablets for students to use in class. I really did not like them, it was rough and the pen was not reacting with the tablet the way I wanted. It would only work if you clicked the button on it above the tablet so you were really air drawing. The tablet was most likely just very broken but that being my only wacom I have used so it gave me a bad impression of them. I have enjoyed both drawing tablets I have owned more then wacom, my first was a turcom and my new one is huion.
Funnilly enough, I just got my first tablet a couple of days ago! I haven't tried any other brands, but the Wacom pen and touch (small) is working great and intuitively! The hard part for me is learning how to use the software (currently using Clip Studio Paint).
I had no clue what to buy when I started digital. Luckily though, it was around my birthday so my parents decided to splurge and get me a wacom intuos! I love it, but I tried out one of friends tablets and hoo boy do I wish I had a larger working area on my tablet. So yes, while I do love my fancy wacom tablet, its definitely not the best out there.
I tried a large Hiuon and I had to admit, as far as the surface and clarity went, it was far superior to wacom, mainly because Wacom is designed to a PC average rather than a Mac one, and my mac retina and glass screens make a wacom screen look practically blurry in comparison. In most other respects though, other brands don't come close. The Hiuon itself was basically a large television, the girl who brought it struggled to hold the thing it was so large and heavy and thick and it had a myriad of cables and things. Obviously a larger wacom takes up more space too but i don't think anything wacom ends up being THAT heavy and cumbersone, and I certainly found that the small cintiq was not only paper thin, but also light enough to handle with one hand, very reasonable cables, and still a very nice surface and nibs etc, and an especially nice pen grip. Also, the value for the design is great, because the small cintiq has a larger active area than a medium intuos of the previous model, so you can't argue with that :'D As far as non screen tablets go though, I've got to say I detest the bamboo models, they come off as nails on a chalkboard to me, whereas graphire and intuos were quite nice. Graphire and the older Intuos I use are not very pretty though, if that's a factor XD
I agree, cheaper wacoms are NOT the way to go (i.e. Bamboo models) but the more moderately priced such as the intuos series work astonishingly well. I have heard both good and bad things about Huion from a friend that owns one. First they are much more noisy than wacoms, and seem to take harder pen pressure. She experienced connection issues at the time while I did not on my intuos. As for the first post, school tablets are alwas bad, I wouldn't expect anything more of them lmao. Right now I'm using a wacom cintiq and it works like a dream. I've had it for two years and the nib hasn't worn down... At all?! The screen has to be kept clean frequently but that's not surprising, I always keep screen cleaner by my desk. My only fuss is it IS heavy. VERY heavy. 22 POUNDS HEAVY. It can tire me out from drawing after 3 hours of use. Other than that, I've had little to no qualms with wacom in its entirety. Wouldn't buy anything but!